Once upon a time we called it Sunday School, Youth Group and Adult Education. This model was based on filling the empty spots in the slate with information about what it means to be a Christian.

Today we prefer to recognize that all of us are in a different stage of our journey, and none of us is an empty slate in terms of our personal experience of God: we all have one, whether it is the perceived absence of a relationship felt as a hunger for God or a more felt experience of God’s presence in our lives calling us ever deeper into faith.

Christian Formation is done in community. We each reflect to the other something of the glory of God, for that glory is in each of by God’s grace and by design. Christian Formation takes seriously the call to receive one another as the child of God each of us is, no matter how young or old we are. We each reflect the light of God in a different way, at a different angle and in a different hue. We need each other in order to affirm God’s presence in one another, and to help each other recognize God’s presence.

What we offer for ongoing Christian Formation here at Trinity provides a safe space of welcome where there is no such thing as a silly question and where we are not judged on the basis of how much we know, but only embraced on the basis of how much God loves us and wants us to grow in that love.

In the words of Sharon Pearson, Christian Formation “is one's life-long growth in Christ, understanding that we are always on a life-changing journey in our relationships with one another and in our encounter with the Living God. It involves Liturgy and Worship, Service and Witness, Instruction (Scripture and Tradition) in connection with Education (application to daily life). Formation occurs when the whole community is engaged together, as well as individually discerning who God calls us to be - not matter what our age is. It is holistic and experiential in nature - it is living out our Baptismal Covenant!”